Friday, August 29, 2014

Recently, it came to my attention that friends of mine had a pair of budding Star Wars fans running around their house. These Star Wars fans also liked to draw, a winning combination in my book! Happy to inspire the next generation of Star Wars enthusiasts and to encourage artistic endeavors I sent them a pair of drawings...

Little did I know at the time that my gift would be reciprocated! Right before leaving for Gen Con a package arrived in the mail with six outstanding drawings. Nolan wanted to thank me for my drawings by sending me some of his own and I am thrilled to receive them! I wanted to share his work you, here are Nolan's Star Wars drawings...

Return of the Jedi - Battle at the Pit Carkoon

By Nolan

Jar Jar Bink

By Nolan

Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper

By Nolan

Stormtrooper

By Nolan

Angry Birds Star Wars

By Nolan

Even more Angry Birds Star Wars

By Nolan

While I wish I could display them all...

(the six drawings are on three sheets of paper - front and back)

... I have added my favorite to my office wall!

That is all for another exciting week on the blog, see you back here on Tuesday, since Monday is a holiday in these parts! Until then...

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

So much new work to choose from to share, it is so hard to pick which is next...

Kinda on a Star Wars kick, so here is my work from the newly released adventure for Age of Rebellion, Onslaught on Arda 1. One of the pieces I was asked to create for this book was a brand new creation for the Star War Universe, the mighty Daran'Enok, and here is how it turned out...

The female Devlikk named Narralia was great to work on too... but to finally be able to design and illustrate something new for Star Wars eclipses her. The funny thing is that I always just expected this opportunity to happen... which seems really odd looking back at it. When I began my art career the Star Wars prequels were in full swing and Star Wars was EVERYWHERE. Then I began working with WotC and they had, at the time, all the Star Wars games. For one reason or another... and most likely MANY reasons, I never had a chance to work on anything, let alone design something new. ...but now I have and I am so very thankful for the opportunity to add my voice to that galaxy far far way.

Here are some images of the book so you can see how the work turned out in the final product...

Handy Dandy images of the work in the book, with minimal flip flopping.

Many thanks to Zoe Robinson for another exciting
Star Wars project!

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...

Monday, August 25, 2014

Today I have a piece that will appear in the new Fantasy Flight Game Star Wars board game, Imperial Assault. The game was announced at Gen Con and they were demoing the game and displaying the components. It looks great and is just the kind of game I like to play... and to make it even better, I worked on it! I got to illustrate one of the item cards, the DXR-6 Disruptor Rifle item card to be specific. This is how my painting for it turned out...

I was asked to illustrate a Trandoshan in the heat of battle firing the DXR-6 Disruptor Rifle. I approached this as the Bossk piece I have yet to have a chance to make. Had a lot of fun doing it, so I was eager to see how the card turned out in the game...

The handy dandy DXR-6 Disruptor Rifle card... with CROPPING action!

Well, that is interesting... Things always change during the development of a game... like templates for the card art. Eight years ago this would have crushed me. Today, I had myself a huge laugh and enjoyed showing friends at Gen Con. I know the art will show up elsewhere in FFG Star Wars games and will get fully utilized. I am just happy to have worked on the game and that this piece is now able to be shared!

That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

Friday, August 22, 2014

Today I have for you a new collection of photo reference that I took while visiting Zoo Atlanta on the return trip from Gen Con. It has become a yearly tradition to stop and check in on the pandas and all the other animals at the zoo after the best four days in gaming. This year offered up some great reference! Some of it was from animals previously encountered while other is from animals new to us at the zoo. I hope you find this reference as useful to you as I find it to me. Here is a selection of the best sixteen images (IMHO)...

Thursday, August 21, 2014

While I was at Gen Con the blog rolled over the 900 mark. This is actually the 904th post. How time flies when you are having fun! Thanks to everybody who has stuck with me so far... because things are about to get interesting (hopefully). I am hoping to make an announcement in early October if all goes well over the next month or two. ...but that is a conversation for another day.

Speaking of Gen Con, it was a really good year for us. Being awarded second place in the Art Show for my Yoda piece was a tremendous honor and it still has not fully sunk in, but Gen Con offered up even more. The whole convention felt different compared to previous years. Maybe it was more busy, maybe I was in a better spot, maybe it was because some of my Magic cards are now out, maybe we were firing on all cylinders, maybe all of these or none of these... The entire convention was WAY more fun and WAY more rewarding. If you missed any of my posts about Gen Con here are handy dandy links:

Gen Con also say the release of a lot of my work which means I can now start sharing so much of what I have spent the last year working on. To that end, here are some sneak peeks at the work to come! Starting on Monday I should be bringing you new work...

With the 5th Edition Monster Manual now spoiled I will be sharing with you the 18 monsters I redesigned for 5th Edition and the 5 monsters I illustrated for the book! Here is a peek at one of my favorite illustrations (and redesigns). RAWR!

Lots of Star Wars work got spoiled including the very first creature I got to design from scratch for the SW Universe! Here is a peek at its hand. RAWR!

The first of my Kaijudo cards are finally being released! I have three cards in the new set and I can't wait to share them. Here is a peek at one of the cards. RAWR!

That is all for another exciting Thursday on the blog, see you back here tomorrow! Until then...

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

All good things must end and so we arrive at Day 4 of Gen Con 2014. I rolled into the last day with only the barest minimum of sleep but I was ready to take on the day. I hit the ground running once I got to the convention center and the hours flew by. Before I knew it four o'clock had arrived and another Gen Con was behind us. Tear down went as smoothly as tear down usually goes... with only a few set backs. Art and prints were traded with other artists and it was time to get the heck out of the convention center. With the con behind us we formed a small group to grab dinner, have a little walk, try out a dessert spot, have a great evening of conversation, and to finally depart on all our separate ways. A HUGE THANKS to Barbara Fisher for all she and her team does to make the art show happen each year! It was SO great to reconnect with friends, turn acquaintances into friends, and meet many new folks! This year was a great Gen Con, looking forward to next year already! Here are some images from Day 4...

Started the day off with a Samus sketch.

The request was to do any female video game character.

Did an art for art swop with Juan C. Martinez.

He got a sketch and I got a penny turned into a dragon!

Here is a better view of the dragon penny.

He made it on the spot while I drew! How cool is that?!

A quick breather to look up towards my left...

...and to my right. Okay, enough goofing around, back to work.

With 5th Edition Monster Manuals released at Gen Con I got to sign several of them.

Here is a better picture of my Aarakocra that I shared a day or two ago. It is the very first monster in the book and I got to redesign it for 5th Edition and illustrate it for the book!

AND they are making a miniature of it! More on all this VERY soon.

This might look like just a normal playing card, but it was a Magic the Gathering playing card. It has a MtG back to it. I was rather proud of my solution for a sketch on the card... RAWR! :P

...I felt the urge to crash the party for a second... if my life was a movie, but it is not so I didn't. That would have been SO unprofessional and inappropriate.

Indianapolis offered up a gorgeous sky that last night.

Even with the invasion of a giant finger this image will back great reference!

Good bye Indiana for another year, until 2015! RAWR!

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog! See you back here tomorrow... because this is a REALLY busy week! Until then...

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Day 3 of Gen Con 2014! Day 3 already feels like a distant memory as I write this… let's see what I can remember… Saturday is always a big day with a crush of people arriving for the weekend and for just the day. Artist alley was jammed packed all day and there were a lot of people to meet, sign stuff for, and send art home with. There were more spoilers and more work making its debut that will soon be arriving on the blog. I did a lot of drawing and sketching including a commission of a Protos. …and more Groots. The day absolutely flew by, no idea how it went from 10am to 6pm in a blink of an eye. After dinner and some business conversation it was time for some more fun. We are making a tradition of getting out dance on at the Sky Bar and this year was just a fun as last year. We had some new faces in the group and MUCH fun was had. The night went VERY late but it was hard to stop the fun once it got started. By the time it was all over there were only a few hour remaining before day 4 was to begin… Here are some images from Day 3…

One more image of my ribbon and Yoda… forgive me the repetition, I am just super humber and excited about this.

Another new Star Wars piece that was first seen at Gen Con, more about this piece and its companion from this book on the blog soon!

I did not get around much this year at the con… I saw a lot of these guys.

Oh look! Sean won an award too!

Those guys in the last image saw a lot of these guys.

Magic kitty cat lady stopped by with her awesome costume.Dani Hatel's Ajani costume took home an award in the costume contest!

MOOOOOOOOORE GROOTS!

Some more Yodas stopped by the booth!

The finished Protos commission. RAWR!

The end of a long day! RAWR!

That is all for another exciting Tuesday on the blog, see you back here tomorrow for Day 4 of Gen Con 2014! Until then...

About Me

I began my career designing special makeup effect for movies and television. Some of the television shows I worked on including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly.

Currently I work in the gaming industry illustrating and designing monsters. I have done work with
Wizards of the Coast, Fantasy Flight Games, Paizo Publishing, Privateer Press, and AEG (just to name a few) on various book, card and miniature gaming products.